My current MacBookPro setup has three monitors on my desk. In addition to the standard laptop screen to the right, I have a Gateway FPD2485 LCD display serving as my Main Screen and an additional LCD screen from my old retired Dell desktop on the left. The Dell LCD display is connected to my Mac through a Diamond Multimedia DisplayLink BVU195 USB Display Adapter ($89.99). The setup gives me some serious screen space to do my work; however, it also makes management of my windows problematic.

I solved the problem by using two different software products - Keyboard Maestro ($36) and Divvy ($14). I reviewed Divvy, which is a window management tool in a previous blog entry. Keyboard Maestro does many things by allowing you to create custom macros for automation. Using Keyboard Maestro, I made three macros - one for each screen - that allows me to move the window of the front application to the various screens using hot keys. The main problem with Divvy is that one normally needs to mouse to the appropriate screen to move the window and then hit the Divvy shortcut.



To solve the problem, I create a KeyBoard Maestro macro as seen above that moves the mouse to a certain location relative to the Main Screen's Top Left Corner (see top). Then, I simulate the typing of F5 that brings up Divvy's shortcut options (see above). I select the appropriate shortcut for the size of window I want and voilà the front application window moves to the appropriate monitor with the appropriate size. Two keystrokes and it's done...very efficient.

Tags: Apple, Software